Report from Roots Camp: Young People Voted. Now What?

I'm down in DC at Roots Camp - a conference for progressive activists and campaign staffers at which the agenda is formed ad-hoc based on audience composition and interest.

About an hour ago we finished off a session called "Youth FTW" - For The Win (or Fuck The What, if you prefer . . .). The session went OK - it was very broad and the general criticism I received was that it wasn't concrete enough w/r/t tactics, what our organizations aren't doing that they should, and how we can all work together smartly and efficiently in the coming years. We're having another session at the end of the day tomorrow where we are going to try to tackle those questions. We're asking members to come prepared to answer these two questions:

1. What is one concrete thing that your org could be doing to move policy and build power for young voters at the policy table?
2. What is one way that other groups could assist your organization in these goals?

Apologies for the sloppy formatting. I'm running short on time and want to get this up quick.

Youth FTW - Young people voted. Now what?

What are the issues people are interested in?

1. How do we use Youth vote energy to move policy?
2. How do we make sure the next step is engaging/fun/etc.?
3. How can the Obama infrastructure work with existing independent organizing?
4. How can we create institutional memory moving forward?
5. How can we move Universal Registration?
6. How do we engage people beginning in High School? Community Colleges?
7. How do you engage young people in off-years?
8. What role did young veterans play in the Obama campaign?
9. How can you get young people involved in local races?
10. How do you move energy away from Obama to issues, races, organizations?
11. What kinds of candidates can engage young people?
12. How can we expand beyond our current youth networks - off campus, etc.?
13. What ARE the issues that will motivate young voters?
14. Should we be "youth activists," or "activists that are young?"
15. How can you build lasting institutions and traditions?
16. How can you connect community service and political engagement?
17. How can we make best use of tech tools?
18. How can we form like voltron?
19. How do we take credit for whatever is next?

Youth Vote History

2002 - youth vote was not on the map. Movement started to start focusing on young voters. Field, Leadership, Communications, Research.
2004 - it works. Record youth turnout. This is when it all started. Not all about Obama. Turnout and partisanship in the works for years.
2008 - Obama and Democrats first candidates to really invest in youth at the Presidential level in decades.
2009 - We're in in new starting point. More in the establishment get that. How can we capitalize on it.

Policy

Election reform - Universal registration, same day registration, early voting
Climate Change/Environment
Reproductive rights and health care
Economy - green jobs to tie it all together with energy.

Models

What models can help us snag youth and get more young people involved?

• Will there be a VISUAL presence of young people as engaged in the media? How can we make that happen?
• How do you get young people to show up at the offices of their district leaders?
• How can young voters be powerful like AARP?
• Energy Action Coalition: Bring 10,000 people to DC in first 100 days to illustrate that young people aren't going away and want movement on policy.
• EDR - can we elect young leaders to advocate for EDR?
• Census - determines representation but many progressive groups are not counted.
• PIRG - students pay a fee, fees are used to hire professional advocates at the state and national levels.
• Need to train more young people to take action on their own behalf. Different levels of engagement other than online action alerts
• MoveOn: tried to target young people, but they never found a way to increase their support. If things worked for younger people, it worked for older people. Not vice versa - no youth house parties.
• We need to work more to find a way to get an "equal" and non-siloed voice at the table. Need to reach out to the broader coalitions at city state and national level. We need to have a strong role at those tables.
• Prop 8 - no young person at upper level of the campaign. If "older" groups won't come to us, we need to start going to them.
• Issues young people care about - NOT "youth issues."
• Need better savvy on the hill, but also in home districts where elected officials all need to go.
• What does a win look like and how can you translate it to engage young people? Need to coordinate a smart series of asks - not just a single "national lobby day."
• We need to figure out what it takes to win and be smarter strategically on policy.
• Shift focus away from being solely on electoral politics - politics to what end? Better transition into issue work - create a cycle between elections and policy.
• What are groups asking people to do right now? What's a tangible volunteer ask post election?
• Stimulus debates - can we make sure it includes provisions for green jobs? Congress emails/calls?
• coordinate campaign to influence Change.gov
• Getting more young people to embed themselves in the state party infrastructure (not just elected office - change the Democratic Party/Silent Revolution)
• Why can't we work together more often on issues? More coordination on what campaigns are running to see how we can support each other.
• Leadership training
• What are we doing FOR young people? What kind of access are we creating? (CPL)
• We have not yet been successful in laying out specific policy requests early on to establish expectations and commitment among supporters and elected officials.
• There is an activism void on Community Campus. Need solid strategies to create new opportunities.
⁃ Video Game Bars
⁃ professors
⁃ all ages clubs
⁃ go where they are
⁃ entertainment vehicle
• Not yet done a good job telling a generational story. How does the budget divide up, who gets pieces of the pie? How can we shift generational power?
• Advocates for Youth - want to talk about opportunities to get young people running for local office (school board, etc.)
• Obama campaign youth vote program ignored broader 18 - 29 year olds.

Capacity

• PIRGs student chapters have connections to professional organizers
• 1/3 - 1/2 of participants have grassroots lobbying arms.
• 1/4 have policy shops
• What is the organizational structure of groups on campus? How can we increase those numbers?
• Leadership programs - 1/3 of room have capacity. Politicorps - Center for Progressive Leadership
• Not enough capacity outside of campuses.

Straw Poll

What will most motivate young people?

Election reform
green jobs/economy
reproductive rights
health care
economy - WINNER
green jobs
climate change